UN hands control of its Timbuktu camp back to Mali

Bamako: The UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has handed over control of one of its last major camps in the northern Timbuktu region, ORTM public television reported on Friday.

The decade-long MINUSMA mission was originally due to hand over its Gao and Timbuktu bases to Malian authorities in January.

But the precarious security situation in a region prone to militant attacks has precipitated a speedier pullout from Timbuktu.

"Given the lack of a solution for the internal security of the MINUSMA base in Timbuktu, it was necessary to close this base urgently," a UN source who requested anonymity told AFP.

Regional governor Bakoun Kante was seen thanking the UN during an official handover ceremony on Thursday broadcast by ORTM.

Mali's military junta demanded MINUSMA withdraw immediately last June amid deteriorating relations.

MINUSMA suffered some 180 fatalities during the 10 years it has tried to keep the peace in the troubled Sahel nation beset with jihadist violence.

The UN Security Council ended the roughly 15,000-strong mission's mandate on June 30 and gave it a December 31 deadline to pull out.

Since then there has been a staggered withdrawal amid difficult conditions in the north, where the army has made gains in an offensive in recent weeks.

Last week, separatist Tuareg forces said they were blockading roads in the region.

Fighting between the separatists and government troops broke out again in August after eight years of calm, as both sides scrambled to fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the UN peacekeepers.